Compassion is a wonderful thing! It's one of the loving feelings that brought Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, when we did nothing to deserve it. In Matthew 8, it says that Jesus had compassion on a hungry multitude that had been following Him for days. And Christ's compassion on them led the way to a miracle that revealed God's power to the crowd of four thousand.
Why would Jesus want us to have compassion? Well, let's think about it. Compassion usually does the following:
1.) Compassion get's the focus off ourselves. When compassion is pondered and felt in our emotions, we usually are not thinking about our wants and needs, but rather the object of our feeling's needs. One thing I find amazing when I study the passage about Jesus feeding the four thousand, is that He didn't consider His own compfort. You have got to remember, although He was God, He was still a mortal man, and had hunger pains and felt tired just like everybody else.But, He had compassion, love and concern, on the crowd of people, and instead of telling His disciples to give Himself something to eat, Jesus blessed the food for nourishment of the hungry people.
2.) Compassion Guides. Since compassion comes from the heart, it will naturally guide us sometimes without us knowing or even fully comprehending that we are "acting out of compassion." So, for example: Compassion in our heart would naturally want to reach out to someone in need. Then what would you say the opposite of compassion is? I hope you said selfishness or harshness. If our heart is masterminded by those un-Christlike traits, then compassion won't get the best of us. It would probably go as far as to have compassion and pity on ourselves, which definately would not be compassion anyway, but instead something like self-centeredness. (Which brings me to my next point)!.
3.)Compassion reflects a pure, unselfish heart. If our heart is selfish, we would not consider other's needs over ourselves. If our heart was full of filth, instead of reflecting God's sweet tenderness, it would reflect blemished and tarnished feelings. I realize you must be wanting to ask, in order to get a more in depth answer: "Why is compassion so ideal? Even more so for a Christian?" First, above all things, JESUS was the most Compassionate One, and He is our ultimate example. Secondly, compassion is the wonderful thing that connects one heart to reaching out to serve another, and serving and ministry is one of our priorities as children of God, to the prodigal children of God. And lastly, because it is highly beneficial to fulfill the Great Commission that Jesus commanded to His children. Love and compassion are very necessary to reach the lost.
Now compassionis "installed" in everyone in this universe's heart, I would suppose. But for it to be used purposefully, it needs to be activated by the Lord for His ministry. For example, if a depressed young man came to a very tenderhearted and compassionate girl, saying he was feeling down, and wanted sexual fulfillment, and she, feeling sorry for him and being compassionate, gave in because she thought it would help. She would have let the gift of compassion control her negatively. ( In other words, there is a balance to compassion.) So you see, we must use compassion very wisely and be careful not to flounder it.
Compassion and love reflect on the Father. Shouldn't we take a part in these attributes?
--Written by Mikaylah Hansen
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